Program Overview

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From cancer-screening to blood transfusions, from infections to genetic diseases, biomedical scientists research the causes and diagnosis of diseases and the effectiveness of the medicines that cure them. You apply the concepts of biochemistry and cell biology to the study of health and disease in the human body. Our multidisciplinary approach means you learn skills that are at the forefront of advances in medical research. At Essex, our research focuses on genetic diseases, infection and immunity, and age-associated conditions such as cancer. On our BSc Biomedical Science, you study areas including:

• The human immune system
• Pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria
• Haematology and blood transfusion
• Cell pathology
• Mechanisms of neurological diseases

You discover the molecular basis of cellular dysfunctions, and describe modern strategies to diagnose and treat them. Visit our biomedical science subject page for more information and content. Covid-19 vaccinations As you may be aware, the UK Government has revoked legislation that requires all health and social care staff working in sites regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Whilst vaccination is not essential, we encourage our applicants and students to be fully vaccinated. Find out more about what this means for applicants to this course.

Professional accreditation

Accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS). Approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) for the purpose of providing eligibility to apply for registration with the HCPC as a biomedical scientist. Why we're great.

• We are the top university in the country for providing NHS placements as part of our applied biomedical science course.
• We provide great support for our students through our collaboration with many hospitals such as Addenbrookes, Bedford, Broomfield, Ipswich, as well as Public Health England, Norwich, Kent and many others. A hospital placement gives you the opportunity to spend a year working in an NHS lab.
• Take advantage of our ultramodern biomedical science facilities in our STEM Centre on campus.

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Placement year

You could spend your third year on a placement year with the NHS in an IBMS-approved lab. You complete a portfolio of assessed work, which results in HCPC registration after completion of the course. This provides you with hands-on experience using specialised equipment and techniques which are in demand from employers, and is a great route into work in an NHS hospital. If you complete a placement year you'll only pay 20% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year. All BSc Biomedical Science students have the opportunity to learn about clinical biochemistry, cellular pathology, medical microbiology, and haematology and transfusion science. This time spent with NHS professionals improves your laboratory skills and helps you to develop an understanding of career paths in this sector. You will have the opportunity to do your final-year project while on placement supervised by highly experienced NHS professionals. Many students choose to study biomedical science because they want to work in a biomedical sciences lab. Although there are plenty of private labs who can hire graduates, the NHS is by far the largest employer of biomedical scientists in the UK. To work full-time in an NHS lab, you will require both accreditation from the IBMS and NHS lab experience. Our biomedical sciences courses are accredited, and we will provide you with a huge range of placement options (at around 40 different partner labs). If you graduate without the addition of the placement year that we offer, you will need to make up that experience before you can work as a fully qualified biomedical scientist in the NHS. It is therefore a really important component and internationally recognised. There are 44 universities in the UK that offer work-based placements, including the University of Essex. Between 2020-2022, the number of students who went on placement from all of these universities was 181, 180 and 176 respectively. This means that Essex’s contribution was 18% (32/181) in 2020, 19% (34/180) in 2021 and 18% (31/176) in 2022 (IBMS 2023). As a result, we are the largest contributor of biomedical science students on placement in the country.

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Our expert staff

As one of the largest departments at our University, we offer a lively, friendly and supportive environment with research-led study and high quality teaching. You will learn from and work alongside our expert staff. Our research covers a wide spectrum of biology – from the cell right through to communities and ecosystems. Key academic staff for this course includes Dr Selwa Alsam , the ' Champion of Biomedical Science in East Anglia ', who is researching hospital-related infections and human microbial diseases including MRSA, wound infections and infection control. Dr Alsam is also the course director for BSc Biomedical Science. The University of Essex has a Women's Network to support female staff and students, and our School was awarded the Athena Swan Silver Award in October 2020, which reflects the work carried out by staff in our School to continue to improve equality, including a mentorship scheme, support for postdoctoral research staff, and financial help towards childcare costs for academics who wish to attend conferences.

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Specialist facilities

Recent spending by our University has allowed for major refurbishment and expansion of our School of Life Sciences, including:

• Work in an open and friendly department, with shared staff-student social spaces
• Conduct your final-year research alongside academics and PhD students in shared labs
• State-of-the-art research facilities , from protein purification, to cell culture and imaging, to molecular modelling
• Receive training in your first year on using the Oxford Nanopore MinION, a portable handheld device that can sequence genomes in real time
• Teaching facilities including new undergraduate laboratories

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Your future

You graduate ready to move into a wide variety of industrial and public sector careers , from the NHS to pharmaceuticals, research, health and safety, teaching. Our students have gone on to work in a number of laboratory-based roles in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and in hospitals, clinics and healthcare companies. Others have gone on to work in sales, publishing and management, while others still have chosen to enhance their career opportunities by studying for MSc or PhD degrees . Our BSc Biomedical Science course also provides the ideal background for entry onto postgraduate medicine programmes. We have an established scheme for helping students prepare their applications and an excellent success rate with respect to students gaining places at medical schools throughout the country. Other recent graduate destinations include:

• Andrologist
• Perfusionist
• Studying medicine
• Studying MSc or PhD
• Working in NHS Hospitals at Cambridge, Chelmsford, Colchester, PHE in Colindale, Basildon, London, Bury St Edmunds, Kent, Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough and Romford

We also work with our University's Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities. For more information on careers in Biochemistry and Biomedicine, visit the websites of the Biochemical Society and the Institute of Biomedical Science . "Biomedical science at Essex completely grabbed my attention. It’s perfect for building knowledge, experience and skills in various aspects of human biology and provided me with the scaffolding that my future career could grow on. I am really grateful that I had a chance to work in such an inspiring environment. Staff at Essex have helped me with the application process and interviews for PhD positions that enabled me to successfully enrol for a fully funded PhD project, which is my next adventure after I graduate." Giedre Ratkeviciute, BSc Biomedical Science "I chose to study BSc Biomedical Science because it allowed me to keep my career paths open. Before I started, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Essex helped me streamline my goals and taught me great employability skills, with a large emphasis placed on the realities of the working world. I did my dissertation project in an NHS hospital microbiology lab, which meant I graduated from Essex with a good working knowledge of the industry and the processes of applying for a job, and now I’m a healthcare scientist at Public Health England." Joshua Irawo, BSc Biomedical Science, 2016